 | By Ian “Gizmo” Richards Every PC slows down over time, compared to when it was brand new — but you can avoid a good deal of this slowdown by replacing some of the programs installed on your hard drive with portable versions. You’ll end up with a system that’s not only faster but quite possibly safer and more stable as well. |
Modern programs need hooks into the OS
In the olden days of PCs, you didn’t need to install programs on your hard drive. Instead, when you needed apps, you ran them from an executable file on a floppy disc.
That changed with the arrival of hard disks and larger programs, especially in the case of apps for Windows and other graphical operating systems. Programs needing to make use of the advanced features of these OSes had to be installed to access the app’s many components and other resources.
Most of the data created during an application’s installation is stored in the Windows Registry. The more programs you install, the more bloated the Registry becomes and the slower your PC gets.
The situation is further compounded by installing new versions of existing programs. This not only adds ever more data to the Registry, it can also leave old and useless data hanging around. Similarly, the remnants of uninstalled applications add to the Registry bloat.
USB memory sticks can rescue an over-apped PC
When USB flash drives arrived on the scene a few years ago, users started demanding programs that could run directly from the removable devices. This was a problem because most programs needing to be installed wouldn’t run reliably from a flash drive.
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